Letter to the Editor: Children can learn kindness without Communion
In Educate Together schools, we nurture them through an ethical curriculum that explores different belief systems — including Christianity.
Dear Editor,
I read Fr Liam Power’s recent reflection on First Communion with real interest. His words capture beautifully the excitement and innocence of children as they grow in empathy, gratitude, and awareness of others — qualities that every parent and teacher can recognise and celebrate.
As principal of a multi-denominational school, I see that same sense of wonder and kindness every day in children of many faiths and none. What unites them is not doctrine, but shared human values: compassion, fairness, respect, inclusion, and gratitude.
These values belong to everyone.
In Educate Together schools, we nurture them through an ethical curriculum that explores different belief systems — including Christianity — while recognising the diversity of worldviews in modern Ireland. Our role is not to prepare children for any one faith’s sacrament, but to help them understand themselves and others, and to grow into caring, open-minded citizens.
Fr Power’s reflection is sincere and thoughtful, but it also underlines an uncomfortable reality: in over 90% of Irish schools, religious instruction is still taught as faith formation, and as fact. The truth is, these same values of kindness and gratitude do not depend on any religious framework.
Children can learn kindness without Communion, and respect without religion. Every child deserves to feel equally valued and at home in their school — whatever their family’s beliefs. That, surely, is the kind of inclusive education Ireland now needs.
Patrick Pender,
Principal,
Waterford Educate Together NS
